Is this allocation ok for someone retiring in a few months?

[Anonymous]

My brother is a retired investment banker. He put a bit in laddered CD's for the first time ever. It's a complete 180 from his usual investment strategy of mostly securities. He said that they don't need to earn more right now, but they can't afford to lose it.

My advisor suggests real estate investments right now, provided that we can afford to hold it for a while. The value comes back eventually if you're not forced to sell during a downturn, and at least you won't lose the whole investment. We're looking into buying a beach rental right now.

Businesses are having a hard time right now due to higher lending costs (still not "high" but higher than what they were), higher operational costs due to inflation, and lowered consumer confidence. We should expect to see many businesses go under.

For these reasons, we're looking to diversify more although we'll keep the bulk in securities. So we're reducing the percentage in securities, buying an investment property in a beach area with high weekly rental rates and low property taxes, and moving some more into laddered CD's. Although not as much into CD's as my brother is because we're at a different stage of life.

Just one perspective, I hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Is the 500k/yr in deferred comp guaranteed? That alone will satisfy your spending needs for 10 years. By then your 13M net worth could double on its own.

rich people problems

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does money bring happiness? If someone like OP is wondering if she is okay financially then there is something fundamentally wrong in our society. Any person will that level of assets should be doing cartwheel, chilling and just be super positive about life.

I really really wish the media devoted enough attention to the millions and millions of Americans who need social security to barely survive. I think some people have no idea the share of people in this country who are screwed. Instead we blame them and come up with a million of reasons why they are in the situation they are in.

Now I don't know OP. OP may very well be an amazing person who regularly help charities of her choice. But I think she lives in a parallel universe not knowing that the absurd amount of money she has will set her up until she dies. Now it's a different story if she wants the 5th generation after she passes is equally rich.

OP you are doing okay 😊

The distinguishing characteristic of MAGA rich people is how angry and resentful they are. It's truly wild to see people like Bill Ackman who are so rich and so petty and aggrieved.i honestly feel a bit bad for these people - they are worth hundreds of millions of billions and just seem angry all the time.

Not saying OP is like that at all. Just an observation about these types from their public statements

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful of type of MM fund you have. Some of them came close to being gated in 2020. Most prime MM funds have some sort of restrictions during excessive drawdown periods. SGOV is a good alternative and also I think more tax efficient.

I would also look into hedging into a different currency FXF, FXE, or gold especially with you having a deferred comp coming anyways (hopefully that is being managed properly).

Fundamentally we are going through a major regime change and I doubt that prior assumptions of the last 60-80 years are really that valid. My concern would be deeper—it’s not just a soft landing vs hard landing. It’s a question of whether the U.S. remains a trustworthy steward of capital at all. If that’s the case then your current setup is not adequate.

12.5MM not adequate, apparently.

Should OP just go full Nick Offerman in the Last of Us?

It's stressful when there is actually something to lose. In 2008 I was youngish and had much less to lose and govt was trying to help the economy. Now we have assets to worry about and govt is actively trying to destroy them.

Imagine how stressful it might be if you say counted on social security and just had yourself declared dead, and had to wade through offices that had been gutted in order to fix the issue and get your monthly payment. Possibly a bit more stressful than having $12 million that might go down 20%.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/23/dead-social-security-doge-musk/